


Secrets

by Goffy



Category: Cirque du Freak | The Saga of Darren Shan - Darren Shan
Genre: F/M, Ficlet, M/M, One-Shot, Poor Annie, Short Story, Sibling Rivalry, alternate timeline where none of that cirque stuff happened, annie being annoyed by the boys, happy end for her though, implied steve/darren, steve and darren are assholes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 11:08:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30121839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goffy/pseuds/Goffy
Summary: Annie is tired of being blackmailed into doing things for her older brother and his best friend. But with a stroke of mad luck, she comes to uncover a rather delicate secret too....
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Secrets

“So, Jim, huh?” Steve says, with that despicable smirk he always wears when he’s pestering her.

“Shut up.” Annie keeps her eyes focused on the TV, well aware that her brother and his best friend are both watching her carefully. 

“I’m going to tell mom and dad.” Darren whispers, sharing a look with Steve. They stifle their laughter. Annie straightens up. 

_No, anything but that! They’re so embarrassing!_

She could just imagine her mother making a big scene and crying about how “fast they grow up”. Then they’d want to meet him...and dad would totally make Jim run for the hills; far, far away from this family.  
She turns around abruptly and looks up at her brother.

“Fine, what do you want?” 

They tell her to fix them a snack so they can enjoy it with the movie. And no, they won’t pause it for her. 

Annie stares at them for a while, an expression of resistance at the tip of her tongue, but she says nothing because it would be of no use anyway. She gets up without complaint and storms off to the kitchen.

It takes her a while to put together something her tyrant of a brother and his equally cruel partner would be satisfied with. As she pours Mountain Dew into two glasses, she imagines how sweet revenge would be. But how could she ever find out their secrets? They’d never willingly tell her anything, and they were far too good at hiding their tracks.

_How, how, how?_

Annie gets lost in thought, working slower as a result. By the time she’s done with the popcorn and the sandwiches and the fries, they must have already forgotten about her. She walks back to the lounge slowly when she’s done, large tray in her hand, eyes focused on the drinks because it helped her spill less while she walked. 

They really must have forgotten about her.  
She looks up when she’s in the lounge and almost drops the tray when she sees what's happening.

“What the hell?!” 

It was like watching your parents kiss, except maybe a little worse because it’s your brother and his best friend, and you didn’t really _ever_ expect to see them like this. The boys tear themselves away from each other, and in the dim illumination of the television light, their blood-rushed faces are a colorful anomaly. 

Annie can only stare in shock before she can speak.

“Don’t.” Darren says as she begins to open her mouth.  
“Don’t tell.” 

_Of course, I’m not a monster!  
—as long as you do exactly what I say. _

The rest of the night proceeded without any more drama and Annie got to have a fairly enjoyable movie experience despite everything. Well, how could she not? With Steve fanning her and stopping only to bring her things and Darren massaging her head and feeding her, she had a pretty good time.


End file.
